Irrational?

s s is an irrational number less than 1 1 .

It's decimal representation has an infinite number of sevens but a finite number of the remaining nine digits.

Is this possible?

Yes No

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1 solution

Jordan Cahn
Jan 23, 2019

We show that any such s s must be rational.

Note that 0. 0 0 n 0 s 7 = 7 9 1 0 n 0.\underbrace{0\ldots 0}_{n\text{ }0\text{s}}\overline{7} = \frac{7}{9\cdot10^n} is a rational number. If s s has a finite number of non-seven digits, there must be a rightmost non-seven digit. Say this occurs at the n n th decimal place. Then, every decimal place to the right of the n n th place must be a seven. So we can write s = k + 0. 0 0 n 0 s 7 = k + 7 9 1 0 n s=k+0.\underbrace{0\ldots 0}_{n\text{ }0\text{s}}\overline{7} = k+\frac{7}{9\cdot10^n} where k < 1 k<1 has n n decimal digits. Since the decimal representation of k k terminates, it is a rational number and, as the sum of rationals, s s must also be rational.

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